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Serengeti
East African Plains Ungulates
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Threats
Loss of habitat owing to human settlement and agricultural expansion, competition for food and water from domestic animals, hunting and poaching, disease
Coke's Hartebeest
or Kongoni
Alcelaphus buselaphus cokei
STATUS:
ESA -- ENDANGERED
(as subspecies swaynei
and tora)
SIZE:
Head and body length:
59-97 inches
(150-245 cm)
Tail length:
12-28 inches
(30-70 cm)
Shoulder height:
43-59 inches
(110-150 cm)
Weight:
220-496 pounds
(100-225 kg)
HABITAT:
Dry savannas
and grasslands
POPULATION:
40,000-45,000 total population (IUCN 1986)
CURRENT RANGE:
Many areas in
sub-Saharan Africa
CONSERVATION:
Wildlife refuges
The Serengeti teems with grazing animals. How can so many grass eaters share the same natural pastures? Apparently, the various species coexist by eating grasses that are at different stages of development. Migratory ungulates like wildebeest specialize on the early-growth stages of grasses, which are the most nutritious. Residential species (those that don't migrate), like topi and Coke's hartebeest, focus on late-growth stages, which are available for much longer periods of time. This delicate balance has maintained itself for thousands of years on the Serengeti, but it can be easily upset if the grasslands' natural growth processes are interrupted.
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The Incredible Serengeti
The Museum's Serengeti diorama in the Akeley Hall of African Mammals holds seven distinct species of African bovids. This is just a sampling of the 30 species of large grazing animals that inhabit these rich grasslands in East Africa, where enormous migratory herds of wildebeest and Burchell's zebra join groups of nonmigratory ungulates: topi, impala, Thomson's gazelle, and many others. This incredible diversity is testimony to the area's significance as a wildlife habitat. No other place in the world supports so many large plant-eating mammals. The diorama displays animals with different feeding habits, all sharing the resources of the Serengeti: wildebeest and zebra graze on the short grass "lawns" where water is plentiful; topi prefer taller wetland grasses in valley bottoms; Coke's hartebeest, common eland, and Thomson's gazelle live in drier, wooded savannas;
Grant's gazelle are found in semi-arid acacia woodlands. In the Serengeti, the ranges of all these animals overlap, as this diorama suggests.
Coke's hartebeest are easily identified by their curved, lyre-shaped horns.
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Topi
Damaliscus lunatus jimela
STATUS:
IUCN -- VULNERABLE
SIZE:
Head and body length:
47-81 inches
(120-205 cm)
Tail length:
Up to 24 inches
(Up to 60 cm)
Shoulder height:
35-53 inches
(88-134 cm)
Weight:
150-342 pounds
(68-155 kg)
HABITAT:
Open grasslands with scattered fig trees,
sparsely timbered
POPULATION:
70,000 total population
(IUCN 1986)
CURRENT RANGE:
Savannas of East Africa
CONSERVATION:
Wildlife reserves; CITES
trade restrictions;
anti-poaching laws
Far-sighted management of the Serengeti has
led to a surge in
ecotourism -- a major source of revenue for
the area and one of the most effective ways to encourage conservation.
Coke's hartebeest
and the topi were reassessed in late
1996 as "conservation dependent" by the IUCN.
Anti-poaching laws for elephants also have benefits for the topi. The presence of elephants in topi habitat helps keep acacia trees in check. Topis require open grasslands, and elephants both eat and trample young Acaciaacacia trees, ensuring that open range remains open and does not become forested.
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The topi's horns
are less curved than
the Coke's hartebeest.
Clouds on the Horizon
Of the animals represented in the diorama, two are currently considered at risk: the topi and Coke's hartebeest. The major threats to both animals are poaching, hunting, and range contraction. The topi's predicament in Uganda is typical. Confined to an area of just 31 square miles (80 sq km) in a national park, their numbers sank from 5,500 to 2,500 in the 1970s and have continued to decline since then.
Several other species in the Museum's diorama face serious problems as well. Although among zebras only Grevy's zebra is considered to be endangered, pressures are increasing on Burchell's zebra in many parts of its range. Migration routes are being cut off by expanding farmlands, villages, and roads; and poaching remains a threat. One subspecies of eland, the West African giant eland -- which you can see in another diorama in Akeley Hall -- is classified as Endangered and may be close to extinction. The East African eland (in this diorama) is not in such dire circumstances, but its range has been greatly reduced in recent years. Even one subspecies of the wildebeest -- long a symbol of Africa's vast herds of hoofed mammals -- is now extinct in part of its range: the Nyassa wildebeest has disappeared completely from Malawi and Mozambique.
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